Woman gets three years for stealing from elderly patients

BANGOR, Maine — A Portuguese national was sentenced Wednesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to three years in prison for stealing more than $40,000 from elderly patients at the facility where she worked and gambling it away at Hollywood Slots.

Lucia Faria, 40, of Bangor admitted stealing $43,700 from three victims, two of them over the age of 80, and her employer over a 15-month period ending last summer. She pleaded guilty in September to forgery and theft.

She faced up to 10 years in prison and could have been ordered to pay restitution.

Faria took checks from the patients at the Kenduskeag Avenue assisted living facility in Bangor and forged them to get money for the slot machines. She also borrowed money from patients and her employer on the pretext that she needed it to return to Portugal to care for a sick brother.

Even though she is married to a 95-year-old man who lives out of state, Faria is expected to be deported after completing her sentence, said Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County.

In imposing the sentence, Justice William Anderson did not require that she pay restitution or impose probation. He said that because of her impending deportation, it was highly unlikely she would be able to repay her victims and that the state has no ability to collect restitution from her once she leaves the country.

Campbell recommended that Faria be sentenced to six years in prison due to the amount of money involved and the age of her victims. Kirk Bloomer, her court-appointed attorney, urged that she be sentenced to two or three years in prison with all but the three months she’s been at the Penobscot County Jail suspended and two years of probation.

Faria has been held without bail since she returned from Portugal in June after failing to appear in court earlier this year.